the inhabitants of ancient kition: preliminary...
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Site and IntroductionThe ancient city-kingdom of Kition extends underneath the modern city of Larnaca and its
surroundings, in the southeast part of Cyprus (Figure 1). The site has been thoroughly
studied up to its decline in the 4th century AD. Both Karageorghis (1985, 2005) and the
French Mission under the direction of Yon (1994, 2000, 2006) and Fourrier (2015) have
provided us with a clear picture of a thriving city-kingdom up until the Late Roman period.
Human habitation here dates back to the Middle Bronze Age as a minor settlement, while
after the silting of Hala Sultan Tekke’s port, it reaches its peak as a major urban centre at
the end of the 13th c. By the 9th c. BC the site prospered into a multicultural settlement
with a strong Phoenician connection. Among the factors that contributed to the emergence
of ancient Kition into a key Cypriot site was its strategic position, which rendered it an ideal
naval base, as well as its harbour, which facilitated the export of primarily copper and
timber to Egypt, Greece and the rest of the eastern Mediterranean (Karageorghis 1973;
Yon and Childs 1997).
Ongoing excavations by the Department of Antiquities as part of mitigation efforts relatedto the waste water and sewer modification project have brought to light new sections ofancient Kition and its cemetery. The analysis of the skeletal remains from theseexcavations can provide unique insights to the diachronic occupation of this key location.The skeletal analysis of this assemblage was initiated in the summer of 2019 as acollaborative effort between the Department of Antiquities, Texas State University, and theCyprus Institute.
Materials and MethodsThe first data collection season (July-August 2019) focused on the remains from two
tombs: Agiou Georgiou Kontou street Τ1 ΣΜ1-Υ259 (hereafter T1), dating from Classical
to Hellenistic times, and Anagenniseos street T2-D900-D221.3 (hereafter T2), dating from
Hellenistic to Roman times. Most burials represented primary inhumations (with some
post-depositional disturbance) but scattered skeletal elements were also found (Figure 2).
This presentation will focus on the primary inhumations as these represent the majority of
the assemblage.
The state of preservation of the remains was assessed using the Zonation method (Knüseland Outram 2004) to record which parts of each skeletal element are present, theAnatomical Preservation Index (API) (Bello and Andrews 2006) to determine whatpercentage of each element is preserved, and the Qualitative Bone Index (QBI) (Bello andAndrews 2006) to mark the percentage of well preserved cortical bone. Standardmorphological and metric skeletal markers of the pelvis, cranium and long bones wereused for the estimation of age and sex (Nikita 2017 and references therein). In addition,pathological lesions were recorded according to Buikstra and Ubelaker (1994), enthesealchanges were scored in fibrocartilagenous entheses of the upper limbs adopting theVilotte et al. (2010) method, while stature was estimated based on long bone lengthsusing the equations by Ruff et al. (2012) and Celbis and Agritmis (2006).
THE INHABITANTS OF ANCIENT KITION: PRELIMINARY INSIGHTS
A. Karligkioti¹, P. Christofi², K. Helgeson³, S. Mavroudas³, F. Constantinou4, K. Cruz³,
E. Nikita¹, N. Herrmann³
¹ Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center (STARC), The Cyprus Institute
² Department of Antiquities, Cyprus
³ Department of Anthropology, Texas State University4 Department of Archaeological Sciences, Leiden University
Results and DiscussionThe osteological analysis to date has identified 14 individuals in Τ1 and 20 in T2. The
skeletal remains from T1 were preserved in a poorer state than those from T2. In
specific, the mean API value for T1 was 3.899 while for T2 it was 4.008, and the mean
QBI value for T1 was 4.177 while for T2 it was 4.391. The difference between these
values was statistically significant (p = 0.015 for API, p = 0.0001 for QBI). The poorer
preservation of T1 can be attributed to the fact that this tomb was found looted and
flooded.
The demographic profile of the sample per tomb can be seen in Figure 3, and per
context (inside or outside sarcophagi) in Figure 4. Figure 3 shows that Tomb 1 contained
more individuals of indeterminate age, classified in the generic ‘adult’ category, than
Tomb 2. This finding is associated to the poorer preservation of the remains in Tomb 1. In
addition, Tomb 1 contained more young adults compared to middle adults whereas this
pattern is inversed in Tomb 2. Given the small sample sizes and the high number of
individuals that could not be aged, this pattern should not be interpreted as indicating a
shorter life span for those interred in Tomb 1. On the other hand, it is very interesting that
the demographic profile of those interred inside sarcophagi is very similar to that of the
individuals found outside these (Figure 4), suggesting no association between mortuary
treatment and demographic characteristics, as least from the very small part of the
cemetery examined.
The pathological conditions identified in the sample are typical for bioarchaeological
assemblages and include degenerative joint disease, Schmorl’s nodes, periostitis, dental
diseases and trauma. Degenerative joint disease was the more frequent condition in the
sample and affected mostly individuals in T2 (Figure 5). The overall caries rate is low for
both tombs (3.2% of available teeth) with a moderate tooth loss (12.8% of sockets).
Figure 5. DJD frequency per zone in T1 (left) and T2 (right)
Stature could be estimated for seven individuals from T2 and ranged from 162.1 to
164.2cm for males and from 155.2 to 169.2cm for females. The entheseal changes
recorded on the current sample are too few to be discussed at this stage.
Concluding remarkThe excavations in ancient Kition have revealed dozens of tombs and are expected to
bring to light many more in the following months. While our study is still at a very early
stage, the demographic characteristics, pathological lesions, and metric traits identified
on the individuals of this site highlight the need for more extensive research in this
direction.
Figure 3. Demographic distribution of
the sample per tombFigure 4. Demographic distribution of
the sample per context
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Figure 1. Map of
Cyprus with location
of ancient Kition
Figure 2. Plan
of T1 (left) and
T2 (right)